Racks are often used to position instruments therein for various purposes. For example, medical instruments are required to be cleaned and sanitized after every use. An initial cleaning is performed to remove large debris from the instruments. After the initial cleaning, the instruments are more thoroughly washed and sterilized by specialized washers. Instruments racks have been developed for the washers to enable cleaning and sterilization of several instruments at one time.
Transfer carts are typically used to transport instrument racks between cleaning stations (e.g., a manual cleaning station, a washer, a sink conveyor, etc.) Such transfer carts and cleaning stations typically include rollers to allow an instrument rack to be easily transferred or received.
Many transfer carts possess a manual locking mechanism to ensure that an instrument rack is securely positioned on the transfer cart during movement of the transfer cart. However, an operator of a transfer cart may forget to manually lock the instrument rack to the transfer cart. As an unlocked instrument rack may rest on the rollers of the transfer cart, the rack could easily slide off of the cart during movement of the cart.
Many transfer carts also include a docking mechanism that enables an operator to manually lock the cart to a cleaning station. The docking mechanism inhibits the cart from moving while an instrument rack is being transferred from or received by the cart. However, an operator may forget to lock the cart to the cleaning station, thereby allowing for movement of the cart during transfer or receipt of the cart.
Further, instruments racks are generally heavy, regardless of whether the racks have been loaded with instruments. As such, even after an instrument rack is transferred from a transfer cart to a cleaning station, a weight of an instrument rack and a distribution of medical instruments within the instrument rack may cause the instrument rack to roll out of the cleaning station and onto the floor.
The present invention provides an improved system for transporting and transferring racks between transfer carts and processing or conveyor stations.